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Abstract Multiliteracies and new literacies pedagogies advocate for expanded ideas of literacy, which focus heavily on the use of digital technologies within the classroom. Yet there is little discussion within the discipline regarding the ethical implications of using social media in teacher education. This is of particular concern given the potential for online spaces to be unsafe. In particular, the social media site Twitter, used and promoted by many educators to collaborate within professional learning networks, is rife with misogyny and racial violence. Through a review of the current literature on social media use in teacher education, and a multi-disciplinary perspective on issues of cyber-violence, I will discuss the ethical implications for teacher educators who want to use Twitter as a pedagogical tool and offer strategies to develop critical social media literacy practices. Highlights • Literature is reviewed on teachers engaging in new participatory social media practices. • Twitter affords many benefits for teachers through professional learning networks. • Twitter is rife with cyber-violence for women and other marginalized communities. • A critical social media literacy is needed within teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a Canadian qualitative case study grounded in multiliteracies theory to describe the meaning-making processes of four students aged 13-14 years as they created history projects. Students were invited to explore curriculum content in self-chosen ways and to produce presentations in a range of formats. The data we present and discuss were collected through participant observation and in-situ interviews with four students who selected digital formats. We examine these data using multiliteracies concepts: specifically multimodality and identity texts. We argue that multimodal literacy practices have potential to bridge gaps between students' in-school and out-of-school lives and underscore the importance of allowing students to draw on their out-of-school identities and interests to guide explorations of curriculum content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]